1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved data processing system, and in particular to a method and apparatus for processing Web pages. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for managing tab indexes in a Web page.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is a global network of computers and networks joined together by means of gateways that handle data transfer and the conversion of messages from a protocol of the sending network to a protocol used by the receiving network. On the Internet, any computer may communicate with any other computer with information traveling over the Internet through a variety of languages, also referred to as protocols. The set of protocols used on the Internet is called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
The Internet has revolutionized both communications and commerce, as well as being a source of both information and entertainment. For many users, email is a widely used format to communicate over the Internet. Additionally, the Internet is also used for real-time voice conversations.
With respect to transferring data over the Internet, the World Wide Web environment is used. This environment is also referred to simply as “the Web”. The Web is a mechanism used to access information on the Internet. In the Web environment, servers and clients effect data transactions using the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), a known protocol for handling the transfer of various data files, such as text files, graphic images, animation files, audio files, and video files.
On the Web, the information in various data files is formatted for presentation to a user by a standard page description language, the hypertext markup language (HTML). Documents using HTML are also referred to as Web pages. Web pages are connected to each other through links or hyperlinks. These links allow for a connection or link to other Web resources identified by a universal resource identifier (URI), such as a uniform resource locator (URL).
A browser is a program used to look at and interact with all of the information on the Web. A browser is able to display Web pages and to traverse links to other Web pages. Resources, such as Web pages, are retrieved by a browser, which is capable of submitting a request for the resource. This request typically includes an identifier, such as, for example, a URL. As used herein, a browser is an application used to navigate or view information or data in any distributed database, such as the Internet or the World Wide Web. A user may enter a domain name through a graphical user interface (GUI) for the browser to access a source of content. The domain name is automatically converted to an IP address by a domain name system (DNS), which is a service that translates the symbolic name entered by the user into an IP address by looking up the domain name in a database.
When navigating through a Web page, a user may scroll through and select components within the Web page, such as links, by using a pointing device, such as a mouse, a keyboard, or a trackball. Additionally, a user may move through different components in a Web page using a tab function. Web pages are often designed to allow for the setting of tab indexes for different components on a Web page. If the tab indexes are set, the user is able to use the tab function to sequentially move through different components from the beginning to the end of the Web page based on the order set by the designer of the Web page.
This type of feature is convenient for users to quickly move from link to link or field to field in a Web page. However, this type of feature may be annoying to a user who is attempting to focus on a particular field such as a login input field, by causing the user to tab through numerous other components, such as links, to reach the login input field.